1937-D 3 Legs Buffalo Nickel

In 1937, a fairly new employee of the Denver
Mint felt
pressure to get more nickels out, so he attempted to hastily repair a
Buffalo Nickel reverse die marred by "clashing".

(Clash mark damage occurs when the upper and lower dies
accidentally come together in the striking action without a coin blank
in between).

Now back to our story... this employee attempted
to grind away the
marks with an emery stick. In the rush, he also erased a large portion
of the bison's foreleg.

Production was resumed with the "repaired" die, striking a small
quantity of "3-legged" nickels that got away from the Mint before the
error was detected.

From that time onward, the 1937-D 3-leg nickel has achieved notoriety
among United States coin collectors. A long record of very sharp price
increases solidifies its status as one of the most legendary of all
coins.

With the good comes the bad. Over the years, dishonest people have
capitalized on the fame of the 3-legged variety by carefully removing a
portion of the leg from ordinary 1937-D nickels and passing them off as
the rarity. As is always the case when buying valuable U.S. coins, be
sure the seller is of good reputation, and/or has been certified by
PCGS, NGC, ICG, or ANACS.

1937-D 3 Legs Buffalo Nickel (G-4 Condition)

The 1937-D Buffalo Nickel with three legs
is one of the most famous coins in United States numismatics, and has a
price increase record to prove it. The blue line above tracks the
percent gain in value of the coin since the year 2000, in G-4
condition. The red line is the performance over the exact same time
period of our Rare Coin Values Index, which charts the composite
percent change of a cross-sectional group of 87 rare US coins. The
1937-D 3 Legged Buffalo Nickel is one of the 87 coins in the Index, so
as you can see, it rates well above the average of the group. The goal
of the Index is to give collectors an idea how well the US rare coin
market is doin, and is updated monthly.